Following the meeting, Butulso thanked FAO for the opportunity to attend the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, “where we were given the chance to voice our concerns and to listen to the experiences of other colleagues that can help us develop our region.”

“We look forward to working with FAO’s assistance to improve our food security projects and to deal with our nutrition issues. We will take back many of the things we’ve heard here and incorporate them into our government policies to improve Vanuatu’s food security situation and develop our ability to resist the threats from climate change,” Butulso said.

Derek French, First Political Adviser in the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Biosecurity, who also attended the meeting with Graziano da Silva, said: “I think Vanuatu has its own traditional problems, in which climate change plays a big part, but in essence we’ve identified a very clear road map here, which needs all of our donors and international organizations to work together.”